Stock Market News

A strong rebound in furniture sales on the back of the recovery in the housing market fuelled the strongest monthly retail sales growth since March 2010. High Street retailers will take some relief from better-than-expected sales figures for January that rose 3.9 per cent according to the British Retail Consortium/KPMG sales monitor. Furniture was the top-performing category, achieving its best growth since April 2006, as shoppers responded enthusiastically to sales and promotions for new ranges. But the contrast was in non-food, which saw low levels of growth in the last quarter. - Daily Mail

The squeeze on household finances since the financial crisis has been so severe that the number of mortgage borrowers with less than 5% of their pay left at the end of the month has nearly doubled in the past seven years, despite cuts in interest rates to an historical low. The finding, disclosed by the Resolution Foundation in its annual State of Living Standards report, underlined the scale of the problem in Britain as wages failed to keep pace with inflation. - The Times

Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone, has sounded a warning to American mobile operators eyeing the European market, telling them that they are unlikely to do a better job than the current players. The Italian-born executive said on Monday that there was not much that European operators could be taught, and that the only reason Europe lagged behind America in rolling out 4G-services was because of complicated regulations. - Daily Telegraph

Political uncertainty surrounding next year's general election could derail a fragile recovery in business investment, the Confederation of Business Industry has warned. While business optimism was finally translating into investment in IT, advertising and research, Katja Hall, the CBI's chief policy director, said political tensions during the build-up to the 2015 election were a potential "mood killer" for investment. - Daily Telegraph

CBI director-general John Cridland said UK gross domestic product (GDP) is poised to expand by 2.6% this year, up from the group's previous forecast of 2.4%. That compares with the 2.5% predicted by UBS Wealth Management and the National Institute of Economic & Social Research. The upbeat assessment comes a day after Bank of Scotland said growth in the private sector economy north of the Border rose to a three-month high in January, as strong output in the manufacturing and service sectors boosted employment. - Scotsman

The bill faced by taxpayers for the clean-up of Sellafield will spiral above the £70 pound official estimate because of continuing project delays and budget overruns, MPs have warned. They have also demanded that the consortium managing the operation be stripped of its contract altogether unless it improves its performance quickly. - The Times

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